What is an ILS? Immersive Learning Simulations according to Aaron Walsh, Director of the Grid Institute, are simulators, virtual realities, and learning games. Walsh claims that the history of immersive education began in the 1990’s. In an interview on the Innovation Insider, a Blog Talk Radio Show, Walsh claims that today people have the technology on their own computers. He states that computers are now fast enough to support the technology for immersive learning simulations. (Walsh) He further makes the supposition that it is because of technological advancements that Immersive Learning Simulations have reached the popularity and magnitude that they have. So where is a virtual reality? What is a simulator? Just how do learning games translate into education? According to the article in Human Communication Research entitled: Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze, and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments: (Bailenson, Blascovich, Turk, Beall, & Loomis 2005) “Immersive collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are simulations in which geographically separated individuals interact in a shared, three-dimensional, digital space using immersive virtual environment technology.” (2005) ILS environment compared to the traditional learning environment Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Howard Gardner along with two of his colleagues from the Harvard Graduate School of Education wrote an article entitled: Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward in the Digital Era (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009) In the article the authors give the history of traditional learning beginning with the invention of writing and observation of the tribe. The story continues with the felt need for scribes who were literate and could calculate accurately, and describes the division of the apprentice and scholar during the pre-modern era of the first academies. The traditional learning environment is described as: “In the traditional classroom, a teacher distributes text-based materials and augments them with oral information; lessons are reinforced through note taking, homework, and textbook guides. Knowledge is possessed by the educator and imparted to his or her students in a top-down, unidirectional transfer, and a student's classroom success or failure is assessed by said educator (or by an externally mandated examination). (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009) Constructivist learning is student centered. It takes the responsibility off the shoulders of the teacher, and places it squarely on the student. It is clear that Immersive learning environments are constructivist by nature. In the ILS the student is engaged in the learning world, and motivation rises because of it. “Constructivist epistemologies redefine existing pedagogical roles, eliciting more engagement and investment on the part of the learner, and less overt control and knowledge dissemination on the part of the educator.” (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009) In an Education Next magazine article entitled: Full Immersion 2025, the author envisions the world of education for a 10 year old boy in the year 2025 using only the technologies that are available, or that are in development today. The environment is a sensory world with 3-D graphics, webcams, interaction with peers, and a system that learns and builds on the individual student’s skills. The ILS environment is not confined to physical space or language barriers because automatic language translation allows students who speak different languages to converse in real time. (Huff, Saxberg 2009) In the ILS environment the learners’ assessment is self regulated, unlike that of the traditional learning model. Issues raised with ILS. There are several factors that need to be taken into consideration when discussing immersive learning environments. Some of these factors can be explained through discussing an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled: After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds. The article explains the current disenchantment of universities who jumped onboard the virtual world classrooms that peaked in 2007. Some of the disenchantment stems from the following: · Moving around SL can be clunky · Online vandalism in SL aka “griefing” · Stumbling in on non-academic activities in SL · Concerns of what would happen if Linden Lab went out of business The article cites that not even GOOGLE could keep its virtual world Lively going, which ended in 2008. (Young, 2010) An interesting development of virtual learning is Educause which has organized a group of educators in higher education that are interested in video-game like learning. The following are up and coming virtual worlds that show promise in education. I have included the issues that are currently provoking them according to the Education Next article: · Open Colbalt- Researchers at Duke University have the plan to create a system that operates with data stored on people’s own computers- Some drawbacks are the developer disagreements and lack of user friendly tools · OpenSimulator-A free world, founded by Aaron Walsh similar to Second Life—Drawbacks are that some feel it is just like Second Life except with more problems. · Linden Lab’s new product-an effort to allow colleges to install a world on their own servers—Only just currently being tested by Case Western (Young, 2010) It is apparent from the readings and research that there is some support from the education community for ILS. However, the platform and medium of choice for educational immersive learning simulations appear to be still in the works. ILS to facilitate learning Edutopia is a George Lucas Foundation web site and magazine that carries the subtitle: “What Works in Education”. Edutopia offers educators access to videos, articles and resources about current issues and trends that are happening in education and reform today. A Side of Sims: Suggestions for the Classroom by Marc Prensky is an article on immersive learning simulations that facilitate an engaging environment for students in education. It was featured in Edutopia Magazine. Prensky lists numerous free online learning simulations some of which I’ve outlined below: · Frogouts-online simulations of dissections · Sim City-game about careers and social skills · Model United Nations-live simulation · Re-Mission-simulation that shows how cancer works and how to fight it · SMS Stock Market simulation (Prensky, 2007) These games are not at the complexity level of a Second Life, nor do they immerse the individual at the same level. However, because of these very reasons they are more user friendly and readily accepted in the traditional school environment. In a 2008 interview on immersive education and the education grid initiative Aaron Walsh spoke from a virtual world to an interviewer about the Education Grid and an open simulation environment. One of the factors of the education grid he claims is to collaborate with educators in order to develop assessments and online learning environments that are user friendly. When ending the interview Walsh is quoted as saying: “…really is an exciting time for education and virtual worlds in general, a lot of momentum and excitement around.” (Walsh, 2008) Margorie Kinnan Rawlings won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939. Her homestead is far off the beaten path on an old Florida road. I visited it once. As you approach the dense green foliage just past the water’s edge there is a simple wooden brown sign with white letters that reads: “It is necessary to leave the impersonal highway, to step inside the rusty gate and close it behind. One is now inside the orange grove, out of one world and in the mysterious heart of another.” The digital environment of the 21st century asks us to step inside the rusty gate and leave impersonal linear learning behind.
References Bailenson, J. N., Blascovich, J., Turk, M., Beall, A. C., & Loomis, J. (n.d.). Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze, and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments. Human Communication Research. Abstract retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=7&sid=e4c5a271-1b78-4ab3-9068-d3137421099d%40sessionmgr110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=18907493 Historical Marker. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/photos/historic/rawlin/rawlin33.htm Huff, G., & Saxberg, B. (2009, Summer). Full Immersion 2025. Education Next, 9(3). Retrieved from http://educationnext.org/full-immersion-2025/ Prensky, M. (2007, March). A side of Sims: Suggestions for the Classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/side-sims Walsh, A. (n.d.). Immersive Education – Education Grid Initiative [Video file]. Retrieved from http://tweaklearning.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/immersive-education-education-grid-initiative/ Walsh, A. E. (Speaker). (n.d.). Immersive education interview. Retrieved from http://immersiveeducation.org/listen_radio_interview.html Weigel, M., James, C., & Gardner, H. (2009, Winter). Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward in the Digital Era. International Journal of Learning Media, 1-18. Retrieved from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/ijlm.2009.0005?select23=Choose&& Young, J. R. (2010, February 14). After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/After-Frustrations-in-Second/64137/
Immersive Learning Simulations according to Aaron Walsh, Director of the Grid Institute, are simulators, virtual realities, and learning games. Walsh claims that the history of immersive education began in the 1990’s. In an interview on the Innovation Insider, a Blog Talk Radio Show, Walsh claims that today people have the technology on their own computers. He states that computers are now fast enough to support the technology for immersive learning simulations. (Walsh) He further makes the supposition that it is because of technological advancements that Immersive Learning Simulations have reached the popularity and magnitude that they have. So where is a virtual reality? What is a simulator? Just how do learning games translate into education?
According to the article in Human Communication Research entitled: Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze, and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments: (Bailenson, Blascovich, Turk, Beall, & Loomis 2005)
“Immersive collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are simulations in which geographically separated individuals interact in a shared, three-dimensional, digital space using immersive virtual environment technology.” (2005)
ILS environment compared to the traditional learning environment
Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Howard Gardner along with two of his colleagues from the Harvard Graduate School of Education wrote an article entitled: Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward in the Digital Era (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009) In the article the authors give the history of traditional learning beginning with the invention of writing and observation of the tribe. The story continues with the felt need for scribes who were literate and could calculate accurately, and describes the division of the apprentice and scholar during the pre-modern era of the first academies. The traditional learning environment is described as:
“In the traditional classroom, a teacher distributes text-based materials and augments them with oral information; lessons are reinforced through note taking, homework, and textbook guides. Knowledge is possessed by the educator and imparted to his or her students in a top-down, unidirectional transfer, and a student's classroom success or failure is assessed by said educator (or by an externally mandated examination). (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009)
Constructivist learning is student centered. It takes the responsibility off the shoulders of the teacher, and places it squarely on the student. It is clear that Immersive learning environments are constructivist by nature. In the ILS the student is engaged in the learning world, and motivation rises because of it.
“Constructivist epistemologies redefine existing pedagogical roles, eliciting more engagement and investment on the part of the learner, and less overt control and knowledge dissemination on the part of the educator.” (Weigal, James & Gardner 2009)
In an Education Next magazine article entitled: Full Immersion 2025, the author envisions the world of education for a 10 year old boy in the year 2025 using only the technologies that are available, or that are in development today. The environment is a sensory world with 3-D graphics, webcams, interaction with peers, and a system that learns and builds on the individual student’s skills. The ILS environment is not confined to physical space or language barriers because automatic language translation allows students who speak different languages to converse in real time. (Huff, Saxberg 2009) In the ILS environment the learners’ assessment is self regulated, unlike that of the traditional learning model.
Issues raised with ILS.
There are several factors that need to be taken into consideration when discussing immersive learning environments. Some of these factors can be explained through discussing an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled: After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds. The article explains the current disenchantment of universities who jumped onboard the virtual world classrooms that peaked in 2007. Some of the disenchantment stems from the following:
· Moving around SL can be clunky
· Online vandalism in SL aka “griefing”
· Stumbling in on non-academic activities in SL
· Concerns of what would happen if Linden Lab went out of business
The article cites that not even GOOGLE could keep its virtual world Lively going, which ended in 2008. (Young, 2010)
An interesting development of virtual learning is Educause which has organized a group of educators in higher education that are interested in video-game like learning. The following are up and coming virtual worlds that show promise in education. I have included the issues that are currently provoking them according to the Education Next article:
· Open Colbalt- Researchers at Duke University have the plan to create a system that operates with data stored on people’s own computers- Some drawbacks are the developer disagreements and lack of user friendly tools
· OpenSimulator-A free world, founded by Aaron Walsh similar to Second Life—Drawbacks are that some feel it is just like Second Life except with more problems.
· Linden Lab’s new product-an effort to allow colleges to install a world on their own servers—Only just currently being tested by Case Western (Young, 2010)
It is apparent from the readings and research that there is some support from the education community for ILS. However, the platform and medium of choice for educational immersive learning simulations appear to be still in the works.
ILS to facilitate learning
Edutopia is a George Lucas Foundation web site and magazine that carries the subtitle: “What Works in Education”. Edutopia offers educators access to videos, articles and resources about current issues and trends that are happening in education and reform today. A Side of Sims: Suggestions for the Classroom by Marc Prensky is an article on immersive learning simulations that facilitate an engaging environment for students in education. It was featured in Edutopia Magazine. Prensky lists numerous free online learning simulations some of which I’ve outlined below:
· Frogouts-online simulations of dissections
· Sim City-game about careers and social skills
· Model United Nations-live simulation
· Re-Mission-simulation that shows how cancer works and how to fight it
· SMS Stock Market simulation (Prensky, 2007)
These games are not at the complexity level of a Second Life, nor do they immerse the individual at the same level. However, because of these very reasons they are more user friendly and readily accepted in the traditional school environment.
In a 2008 interview on immersive education and the education grid initiative Aaron Walsh spoke from a virtual world to an interviewer about the Education Grid and an open simulation environment. One of the factors of the education grid he claims is to collaborate with educators in order to develop assessments and online learning environments that are user friendly. When ending the interview Walsh is quoted as saying:
“…really is an exciting time for education and virtual worlds in general, a lot of momentum and excitement around.” (Walsh, 2008)
Margorie Kinnan Rawlings won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939. Her homestead is far off the beaten path on an old Florida road. I visited it once. As you approach the dense green foliage just past the water’s edge there is a simple wooden brown sign with white letters that reads:
“It is necessary to leave the impersonal highway, to step inside the rusty gate and close it behind. One is now inside the orange grove, out of one world and in the mysterious heart of another.”
The digital environment of the 21st century asks us to step inside the rusty gate and leave impersonal linear learning behind.
References
Bailenson, J. N., Blascovich, J., Turk, M., Beall, A. C., & Loomis, J. (n.d.). Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze, and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments. Human Communication Research. Abstract retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=7&sid=e4c5a271-1b78-4ab3-9068-d3137421099d%40sessionmgr110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=18907493
Historical Marker. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2010, from http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/photos/historic/rawlin/rawlin33.htm
Huff, G., & Saxberg, B. (2009, Summer). Full Immersion 2025. Education Next, 9(3). Retrieved from http://educationnext.org/full-immersion-2025/
Prensky, M. (2007, March). A side of Sims: Suggestions for the Classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/side-sims
Walsh, A. (n.d.). Immersive Education – Education Grid Initiative [Video file]. Retrieved from http://tweaklearning.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/immersive-education-education-grid-initiative/
Walsh, A. E. (Speaker). (n.d.). Immersive education interview. Retrieved from http://immersiveeducation.org/listen_radio_interview.html
Weigel, M., James, C., & Gardner, H. (2009, Winter). Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward in the Digital Era. International Journal of Learning Media, 1-18. Retrieved from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/ijlm.2009.0005?select23=Choose&&
Young, J. R. (2010, February 14). After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/After-Frustrations-in-Second/64137/